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Australia returns asylum seekers to Sri Lanka in sea transfer Australia returns asylum seekers to Sri Lanka in sea transfer
(35 minutes later)
The Australian government has confirmed 41 asylum seekers have been returned to Sri Lankan authorities in a transfer at sea. Australian border protection officials have handed 41 Sri Lankan nationals, including four Tamils, over to Sri Lankan authorities in a transfer at sea.
The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said the 41 Sri Lankans were handed over by Australian border protection authorities in an operation on Sunday. The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, confirmed the transfer after more than a week of speculation about the fate of two asylum seeker vessels and a statement by the UN refugee agency last week expressing its “profound concern”.
The transfer occurred in mild sea conditions just outside the Port of Batticaloa, off the coast of Sri Lanka. Morrison said a “suspected illegal entry vessel” was intercepted by Border Protection Command west of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in late June, and at no stage was the boat in distress and all persons aboard were safe and accounted for.
"All persons intercepted and returned were subjected to an enhanced screening process, as also practised by the previous government, to ensure compliance by Australia with our international obligations under relevant conventions," Morrison said in a statement on Monday. Forty-one “potential illegal maritime arrivals” were returned to Sri Lankan authorities on Sunday, he said in a statement issued on Monday morning.
The transfer comes after days of speculation regarding the fate of 203 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, with two ships believed to have been intercepted by Australian authorities. “The 41 Sri Lankan nationals were transferred at sea, in mild sea conditions from a vessel assigned to Border Protection Command (BPC) to Sri Lankan authorities, just outside the Port of Batticaloa,” Morrison said.
The government has refused to comment on the asylum seekers, citing operational reasons. The minister confirmed asylum claims were assessed via the controversial process of “enhanced screening”, which identified any person who may need to be referred to a further determination process and therefore transferred to Papua New Guinea or Nauru for offshore processing.
The government's refusal to confirm the two boats had been handed back to Sri Lanka angered human rights groups, who say Tamils could face torture, rape and long-term detention if they are returned. Refugee advocates have been highly critical of the rapid process and the UNHCR said individuals who sought asylum “must be properly and individually screened for protection needs, in a process which they understand and in which they are able to explain their needs” or risk “putting already vulnerable individuals at grave risk of danger”.
Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser was also scathing of the government, saying handing asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka at sea was redolent of handing Jews over to the Nazis in the 1930s. Morrison, who is due to visit Sri Lanka this week, defended the process.
Morrison said of those transferred on Sunday, 37 were Sinhalese and only four were Tamil. “All persons intercepted and returned were subjected to an enhanced screening process, as also practiced by the previous government, to ensure compliance by Australia with our international obligations under relevant conventions,” he said.
They were intercepted by Australian authorities in late June west of the Cocos Islands. Morrison said there was only one person whose claim was deemed to need further assessment.
“In the single case where such a referral was recommended, the individual, a Sinhalese Sri Lankan national, voluntarily requested to depart the vessel with the other persons being transferred and returned to Sri Lanka,” he said.
“This transfer of 41 persons, including 37 Sinhalese and 4 Tamil Sri Lankan nationals, follows previous returns to Sri Lanka including 79 illegal maritime arrivals under Operation Sovereign Borders last year.”
In a reaffirmation of the government’s hardline asylum seeker policies, Morrison said the Coalition would not “deal in half measures” and while it would “continue to act in accordance with our international obligations” it would not allow “people smugglers to try and exploit and manipulate Australia's support of these conventions”.
“Accordingly, the government will continue to reject the public and political advocacy of those who have sought to pressure the government into a change of policy. Their advocacy, though well intentioned, is naively doing the bidding of people smugglers who have been responsible for almost 1,200 deaths at sea,” Morrison said.
Morrison issued the statement after a story about the transfer appeared in the Daily Telegraph on Monday.
Labor's Senate leader, Penny Wong, said the government had "confirmed some facts belatedly after dropping some facts to one newspaper".
Wong told the ABC the issues were serious and Australians expected their government to comply with its ethical and legal obligations "which are not to return people to the risk of persecution".
"I don't think on something as important as this it's good enough for the government simply to allow rumour to run, concerns to grow, and to simply drop a few lines into one newspaper and believe that accountability has been met," she said.